The supervisor says it’s not to code, but neither was the stove that was removed. It’ll do for now...going to be running much cooler than the wood stove was.
I wouldn’t know, but it’s good to know. Have only burned a test fire with wood and one more to get the anthracite going. I do plan on giving it some time with some good dry wood. Has to be some better than the other wood stove. Both are too big to be burning wood a lot in this house.
Just in case I decide to burn a lot of wood I wanted to protect my grates, so I cut some bricks to fit in top of the grates. I plan on further modifying these to have some spaces to sweep ash down into the grates. These are the original fire bricks. This stove is a 1998 model...less than a handful of fires in it. First burn, a primer for the anthracite. Dry wood burning fast and hot. Hitzer rips bricks lengthwise to put below the door lip. I left them full height to hold more coal and I cut a couple sets to fit just in case a few break. Footprint Rock above...
Letting the volatiles burn off the second layer. Lots more room for coal. I put 96lbs in her the first time, but I’m sure someone more experienced could have added another 25-20 lbs. Nowhere near full yet, but we have lift off. She’ll hold quite the load of wood as well.
I've installed wood stoves, wood inserts, pellet stoves, broke out flue tiles, installed liners, level 1 visual inspections, level 2 camera inspections, level 3 complete tear down to see if there are any hidden dangers. Who decides this? The customer! Will we install a wood stove vented into a flu with a cracked tile, NO! Will we install a wood stove too close to a combustible wall, NO! Will the customer decide and then pay to have us make it right, YES! If the customer decides as a free citizen to not follow code it's not our problem. We noted it once on paper, customer signs, we are free of liability. If we drive past their house and there is smoke coming from their chimney an hour later, do we kick down their door and demand they put out their fire and explain again that what they are doing isn't safe-NO! What makes us different from other sites is that we believe in freedom, and freedom of choice. If someone is doing something unsafe, then by all means speak up.(once, maybe twice) - this doesn't have to turn into a pizzing match.
As I said in all of my replies that were apparently not acceptable here. I couldn't care less how he installs his stove. But I wanted it to be clear to anyone else reading this thread that ignoring clearance requirements is a dangerous gamble to take.
And yes I work in the field just as you do and yes I work on many noncompliant installs. But there are some I just have to walk away from if they won't fix them. In this case for me to work on that install I would insist on a level 3 inspection which would involve drilling a few small test holes in the mortar to see what is going on behind the stone. The install may be perfectly fine I don't know. My only issue was the attitude that clearance requirements are silly and there is no reason to honor them.
And I agree, but suggesting once or twice is enough. Your not liable, I'm not liable. Personally, if I pushed everything I've learned professionally, added it in here and that's all I did, everyone would brush it off or skip over everything I write. Then what?
They may actually learn how to install properly and respect your opinion when it comes to doing things by the book.
Absolutely not and I wouldn't expect everyone to I know I don't. But as a professional I feel an obligation to give people the proper info so they can make that decision knowing the risks of not doing so.
Maybe. When I go into a house, explaining once verbally and in the report we leave for them or email them, explains everything. We don't keep hounding them about it. Doing so, would be unprofessional, and cause then to think we had something up our sleeve.
In the field no I wouldn't hound anyone. But I would give them a detailed description of the dangers involved. Recomend a course of action to correct it and if I feel it is dangerous enough tell them I can't work on it untill the problems are fixed.
Here’s an idea.... Start a thread called “The do’s and don’t’s of wood burner installs [et al], by BHoller ”..... and when you come upon what you feel are outright triggering threads, place a link to your thread. Kinda like how Backwoods Savage has his Primer on Woodburning by Backwoods Savage Seems to work quite well, and keeps the crossfire chat to a minimum.
If I started a thread like that here it would be blasted by the anti code guys that seem to abound here. Any time I mention a thing about code I get jumped on for it.
